Love Island takes on Big Brother

Tonight saw the launch of Love Island. The show that hopes to help 'Celebrities' find love. But will this revamped programme prove a successful rival to Big Brother?

'Celebrity Love Island' started tonight on ITV1. Only it isn't 'Celebrity' anymore. Since last year was considered by some to be a bit of a failure, the producers have made changes to the format. Clearly dropping the 'Celebrity' tag was a good start, since I had never heard of any of the contestants. Included in the line-up were a soap actor, a few 'models' (who were decidedly questionable), the son of Pierce Brosnan and the stepdaughter of Gazza. Hmm. I know that the 'Heat' generation uses the word celebrity loosely, but I wasn't aware that being related to someone famous made you a star in your own right.

Other changes to the show involved dropping Kelly Brook, the presenter who looked great but was carved from Oak. The new presenter is Fearne Cotton, who can at least deviate from the Autocue. Fearne and her co-presenter, Patrick Kielty come across as slightly smug and condescending when talking about the contestants (they shouldn't be, give it a few years and they'll be begging to participate). Their scripted banter about the Love Island hopefuls is tiresome and often unfunny. Still, with many of the 'Celebrities' it does seem to be fair game. Take these prime examples;

Alicia Douvall, who describes herself as a 'model', seems to be most famous for sleeping with celebrities. She also seems to have aspirations to look like the lion from 'The wizard of Oz' (or maybe that is just from one too many facelifts).

Chris Brosnan used his trump card within minutes, by modestly telling the girls who his father is. He then made some hilarious jokes about it such as "I think we were BONDing!" There are seven weeks of this show and Chris has already made me hate him.

Lady Victoria Hervey. I would rather watch every Bond film ever made, whilst listening to Chris Brosnan telling his side-splitting jokes than watch her for seven weeks.

Tonight, everyone had to pair up, leaving Sophie Anderton alone. This obviously dented her Everest sized ego, and she proceeded to cry for the rest of the show. The rest of them went on dreary dates around the Island, which was rainy and windswept, thus setting the tone for a boring first night.

Can this show really be Big Brother's most obvious rival? ITV1 certainly hopes so. To commission a second series of a much derided show, only to watch it fail again would be a huge embarrassment. Having said that, maybe the odds are in their favour. Love Island has started in the middle of BB's run, when traditionally the house settles into a routine. It also has the opportunity to exploit the best bits of reality TV, the fights and the romances. Maybe Big Brother should be worried. Love Island could be hot on your heels.